Since the English have conquered India, peace and order have been everywhere established; the walls decay and are not repaired; the people indeed frequently wear arms, but more from habit than necessity.

The distance from Dowlutabad to Auranjabad was eight miles.  I was already much fatigued, for I had visited the temples, ridden eight miles over the mountain pass, and mounted to the top of the fortress during the greatest heat; but I looked forward to the night, which I preferred passing in a house and a comfortable bed, rather than under an open verandah; and, seating myself in my waggon, desired the driver to quicken the pace of his weary oxen as much as possible.

CHAPTER XVI.  CONTINUATION OF JOURNEY AND SOJOURN.

AURANJABAD—­PUNA—­EAST INDIAN MARRIAGES—­THE FOOLISH WAGGONER—­ BOMBAY—­THE PARSEES, OR FIRE-WORSHIPPERS—­INDIAN BURIAL CEREMONIES—­ THE ISLAND OF ELEPHANTA—­THE ISLAND OF SALSETTE.

On the 7th of March, late in the evening, I reached Auranjabad.  Captain Stewart, who lived outside the town, received me with the same cordiality as the other residents had done.

8th March.  Captain Stewart and his wife accompanied me this morning to the town to show me its objects of interest, which consisted of a monument and a sacred pool.  Auranjabad is the capital of the Deccan, has 60,000 inhabitants, and is partly in ruins.

The monument, which is immediately outside the town, was built more than two hundred years since by the Sultan Aurung-zeb-Alemgir, in memory of his daughter.  It by no means deserves to be compared to the great Tadsch at Agra.  It is a mosque, with a lofty arched dome and four minarets.  The building is covered all round—­the lower part of the outside with a coating of white marble five feet high; the upper portion is cased with fine white cement, which is worked over with ornamental flowers and arabesques.  The entrance doors are beautifully inlaid with metal, on which flowers and ornamental designs are engraved in a highly artistic manner.  Unfortunately, the monument is already much decayed; one of the minarets is half fallen in ruins.  In the mosque stands a plain sarcophagus, surrounded by a marble trellis-work.  Both have nothing in common with the great Tadsch beyond the white marble of which they are constructed; in richness and artistic execution, they are so much inferior, that I could not understand how any one could be led to make so incredible a comparison.

Near the mosque lies a pretty marble hall, surrounded by a neglected garden.

The reigning king would have removed the marble from this monument for use in some building in which he was to be interred!  He requested permission to do so from the English government.  The answer was to the effect, that he could do so if he wished, but he should remember, that if he had so little respect for the monuments of his predecessors, his own might experience a similar fate.  This answer induced him to relinquish his intentions.